international

Medical schools in Eastern Europe are seeing increases in the number of foreign students enrolling, particularly in programs taught in English, The New York Times reported. The programs are less expensive than those in the United States and are easier to get into.

Israeli universities for the first time are being allowed to offer some faculty members individual contracts -- with salaries 30 percent higher than the norm -- instead of having all professors covered by collective agreements, Haaretz reported. The goal of the initiative is to recruit back to Israel star faculty members who have left for universities abroad, typically in the United States, where top faculty members earn more than they do in Israel.

France is considering a proposal from its High Council for Integration that Muslim headscarves be banned at universities, Reuters reported. A ban is already in place in schools and many French leaders place a high priority on promoting secularism in public institutions. Muslim groups are speaking out against the proposal. "This is one more step in the legal stigmatization of Muslims,” said a statement from the March 15 Liberty Committee, a Muslim group opposed to the proposed ban. "The separation of church and state cannot be reduced, as some want it to be, to an arsenal of laws against Muslims."

The University of Oslo has rejected the application of Anders Behring Breivik, a mass killer, to study political science, AFP reported. Breivik, a right wing extremist, is in jail for his 2011 attacks that killed 77. Norway encourages prisoners to seek education (typically through distance programs) and Breivik's prison had no problem with his applying to enroll remotely. But word of the application set off a debate at the university, with some faculty members saying that they would refuse to teach him. The university said that it evaluated the application under normal procedures and rejected Breivik because he had not finished his high school degree.

The American Civil Liberties Union is raising questions about why Florida International University called off a planned baseball game at its campus between players from a Cuban team and their former teammates who now live in the United States, the Associated Press reported. The university called off the game less than a week after it started selling tickets, saying that a "contractual matter" led to the decision and refusing to elaborate. The ACLU has filed an open-records request for communication between the university and an anti-Castro group. "We have troubling evidence that Florida International University canceled the contract for the event based on expectations about political speech or fears about hostile reaction from some community groups which may or may not occur," said Maria Kayanan, associate legal director of the ACLU of Florida.

Citing losses of approximately $7 million, Ave Maria University, in Florida, has sold its branch campus in Nicaragua, the Naples Daily Newsreported. The Nicaragua campus has been sold to the Fort Lauderdale-based Keiser University.

An article in Chemistry World explores the effect of new guidelines barring European Union funding for institutions in the occupied territories on Israel’s continuing access to European research and development grants. Of the eight universities in Israel, the new guidelines will likely have the most significant effects on Ariel University, which is located in the West Bank and was upgraded to university status last year despite protests from many Israeli academics.